Editing Virginity (section)

==={{anchor|Loss of virginity}}Definitions of virginity loss===
There are varying understandings as to which types of sexual activities result in loss of virginity. The traditional view is that virginity is only lost through vaginal penetration by the penis, consensual or non-consensual, and that acts of [[oral sex]], [[anal sex]], [[Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex|manual sex]] or other forms of [[non-penetrative sex]] do not result in loss of virginity. A person who engages in such acts without having engaged in vaginal intercourse is often regarded among heterosexuals and researchers as "technically a virgin".<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="Intimate"/><ref name="Plummer">{{cite book | author = Ken Plummer | title = Modern Homosexualities: Fragments of Lesbian and Gay Experiences | publisher = [[Routledge]] | year = 2002 | pages = 187–191 | access-date = August 24, 2013 | isbn = 978-1134922420 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OSO3q4XEfz4C&pg=PA189 | quote = The social construction of 'sex' as vaginal intercourse affects how other forms of sexual activity are evaluated as sexually satisfying or arousing; in some cases whether an activity is seen as a sexual act at all. For example, unless a woman has been penetrated by a man's penis she is still technically a virgin even if she has had lots of sexual experience. | archive-date = March 18, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150318215831/http://books.google.com/books?id=OSO3q4XEfz4C&pg=PA189 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="www.usatoday.com">{{cite news|first=Sharon|last=Jayson|title='Technical virginity' becomes part of teens' equation|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=2005-10-19|access-date=2009-08-07|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-19-teens-technical-virginity_x.htm|archive-date=2012-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016061754/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-19-teens-technical-virginity_x.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> By contrast, gay or [[lesbian]] individuals often describe such acts as resulting in loss of virginity.<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="Blank"/> Some [[Gay men|gay males]] regard penile-anal penetration as resulting in loss of virginity, but not [[fellatio]], [[handjob]]s or other types of non-penetrative sex,<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="Virgin"/> while lesbians may regard [[cunnilingus]] or [[Fingering (sexual act)|fingering]] as virginity loss.<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="Blank"/><ref name="Bouris">{{Cite book|title=The First Time: What Parents and Teenage Girls Should Know about "Losing Your Virginity"|author=Karen Bouris|year=1995|publisher=[[Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari|Conari Press]]|pages=133–134|isbn=978-0-943233-93-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Id5MVeH_3BoC&q=virginity+loss+among+lesbians&pg=PA133|access-date=2013-12-15|archive-date=2021-08-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825202401/https://books.google.com/books?id=Id5MVeH_3BoC&q=virginity+loss+among+lesbians&pg=PA133|url-status=live}}</ref> Some lesbians who debate the traditional definition consider whether or not non-penile forms of vaginal penetration constitute virginity loss,<ref name="Bouris"/> while other gay men and lesbians assert that the term ''virginity'' is meaningless to them because of the prevalence of the traditional definition.<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="Virgin"/>

Whether a person can lose their virginity through [[rape]] is also subject to debate, with the belief that virginity can only be lost through consensual sex being prevalent in some studies.<ref name="Carpenter"/><ref name="consent"/> In a study by researcher and author Laura M. Carpenter, many men and women discussed how they felt virginity could not be taken through rape. They described losing their virginities in one of three ways: "as a gift, stigma or part of the process."<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/00224490109552080 | volume=38 | issue=2 | title=The ambiguity of "having sex": The subjective experience of virginity loss in the united states | journal=Journal of Sex Research | pages=127–139| year=2001 | last1=Carpenter | first1=Laura M. | s2cid=143906218 }}</ref>

Carpenter states that despite perceptions of what determines virginity loss being as varied among gay men and lesbians as they are among heterosexuals, and in some cases more varied among the former, that the matter has been described to her as people viewing sexual acts relating to virginity loss as "acts that correspond to your sexual orientation," which suggests the following: "So if you're a gay male, you're supposed to have anal sex because that's what gay men do. And if you're a gay woman, then you're supposed to have oral sex, because that's what gay women do. And so those become, like markers, for when virginity is lost."<ref name="Carpenter"/>

The concept of "technical virginity" or [[sexual abstinence]] through oral sex is popular among teenagers.<ref name=www.usatoday.com/><ref name="CDC, oral sex">{{cite web|title=Oral Sex and HIV Risk|date=June 2009|access-date=March 2, 2017|publisher=[[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC)|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/27272511/CDC-s-HIV-Infection-through-Oral-Sex-Fact-Sheet}}</ref> For example, oral sex is common among adolescent girls who fellate their boyfriends not only to preserve their virginity, but also to create and maintain intimacy or to avoid pregnancy.<ref name="uc">{{cite journal|author1=Sonya S. Brady|author2=Bonnie L. Halpern-Felsher|name-list-style=amp|title=Adolescents' Reported Consequences of Having Oral Sex Versus Vaginal Sex|journal=Pediatrics|year=2007|volume=119|issue=2|pages=229–236|doi=10.1542/peds.2006-1727|pmid=17272611|url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/2/229.full.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.321.9520|s2cid=17998160|access-date=2017-11-01|archive-date=2020-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420213133/https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/2/229|url-status=live}}</ref> In a 1999 study published in ''[[JAMA (journal)|JAMA]]'' (the ''Journal of the American Medical Association''), the definition of "sex" was examined based on a 1991 random sample of 599 college students from 29 US states; it found that 60% said oral-genital contact (like fellatio, cunnilingus) did not constitute having sex.<!--NOTE: First news source says 599 college students and 60%; second news source says nearly 600 college students and 59%.--><ref name="McAnulty"/><ref name=www.usatoday.com/><ref name="Cox">{{cite news|first=Lauren|last=Cox|title=Study: Adults Can't Agree What 'Sex' Means|publisher=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC.com]]|date=March 8, 2010|access-date=September 5, 2012|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Sex/adults-agree-sex-means-study-shows/story?id=10030354#.UEfroqM4onY|archive-date=December 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217110617/http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Sex/adults-agree-sex-means-study-shows/story?id=10030354#.UEfroqM4onY|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kauth">{{cite book|title=True Nature: A Theory of Sexual Attraction|publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|year=2000|page=74|access-date=August 30, 2012|isbn=978-0306463907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PzDKr-qCdTAC&q=Stephanie+Sanders+students+sex&pg=PA74|author=Michael R Kauth}}</ref> Stephanie Sanders of the [[Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction|Kinsey Institute]], co-author of the study, stated, "That's the 'technical virginity' thing that's going on." She and other researchers titled their findings "Would You Say You 'Had Sex' If ...?"<ref name=www.usatoday.com/> By contrast, in a study released in 2008 by the [[Guttmacher Institute]], author of the findings Laura Lindberg stated that there "is a widespread belief that teens engage in nonvaginal forms of sex, especially oral sex, as a way to be sexually active while still claiming that technically, they are virgins", but that her study drew the conclusion that "research shows that this supposed substitution of oral sex for vaginal sex is largely a myth".<ref name="oral sex for intercourse">{{cite press release|title=Perception That Teens Frequently Substitute Oral Sex For Intercourse A Myth|date=2008-05-20|url=http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2008/05/20/index.html|access-date=March 12, 2012|archive-date=2012-02-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211081907/http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2008/05/20/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

A 2003 study published in the ''[[Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality]]'' focusing on definitions of "having sex" and noting studies concerning university students from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia reported that "[w]hile the vast majority of respondents (more than 97%) in these three studies included penile-vaginal intercourse in their definition of sex, fewer (between 70% and 90%) respondents considered penile-anal intercourse to constitute having sex" and that "oral-genital behaviours were defined as sex by between 32% and 58% of respondents".<ref name="Randall">{{cite journal|last1=Randall|first1=H. E.|last2=Byers|first2=S. E.|title=What is sex? Students' definitions of having sex, sexual partner, and unfaithful sexual behaviour|journal=[[The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality]]|volume=12|pages=87–96|year=2003|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-114049357/what-is-sex-students-definitions-of-having-sex|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015002419/http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-114049357/what-is-sex-students-definitions-of-having-sex|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 15, 2013|quote=Recently, researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have investigated university students' definitions of having sex. These studies found that students differ in their opinions of what sexual behaviours constitute having sex (Pitts & Rahman, 2001; Richters & Song, 1999; Sanders & Reinisch, 1999). While the vast majority of respondents (more than 97%) in these three studies included penile-vaginal intercourse in their definition of sex, fewer (between 70% and 90%) respondents considered penile-anal intercourse to constitute having sex. Oral-genital behaviours were defined as sex by between 32% and 58% of respondents.}}</ref> A different study by the Kinsey Institute sampled 484 people, ranging in ages 18–96. "Nearly 95 percent of people in the study agreed that penile-vaginal intercourse meant 'had sex.' But the numbers changed as the questions got more specific." 11 percent of respondents based "had sex" on whether the man had achieved an [[orgasm]], concluding that absence of an orgasm does not constitute "having had" sex. "About 80 percent of respondents said penile-anal intercourse meant 'had sex.' About 70 percent of people believed oral sex was sex."<ref name="Cox"/>

[[Virginity pledge]]s (or abstinence pledges) made by heterosexual teenagers and young adults may also include the practice of "technical virginity". In a peer-reviewed study by sociologists [[Peter Bearman]] and Hannah Brueckner, which looked at virginity pledgers five years after their pledge, they found that the pledgers have similar proportions of [[sexually transmitted disease]]s (STDs) and at least as high proportions of anal and oral sex as those who have not made a virginity pledge, and deduced that there was substitution of oral and anal sex for vaginal sex among the pledgers. However, the data for anal sex without vaginal sex reported by males did not reflect this directly.<ref name="webmdVPDCSR">{{cite web|url=http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20050322/virginity-pledges-dont-cut-std-rates|title=Virginity Pledges Don't Cut STD Rates|work=WebMD.com|access-date=2013-12-26|archive-date=2013-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215141525/http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/news/20050322/virginity-pledges-dont-cut-std-rates|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="promise">{{cite journal|last2=Brueckner|first2=Hannah|date=April 2005|title=After the promise: The STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges|journal=Journal of Adolescent Health|volume=36|issue=4|pages=271–278|doi=10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.01.005|pmid=15780782|last1=Bearman|first1=Peter|citeseerx=10.1.1.362.6308|s2cid=10150529 }}</ref>